Battlestar: Breaking the cycle

Wow! I feel strangely at peace after the finale. I’m going to miss this show like crazy, but I agree with whoever it was (I’ve read so much lately I don’t remember) who said that the show is wrapped up so well, you don’t want any more.

In some ways, I feel like we know Bill Adama too much. We’ve seen him drunk, high, in the afterglow, angry, depressed, in mourning, shaving, needing to “work on something,” crying, rolling around in paint, brushing his teeth and now vomiting on himself. It’s a good thing this show is over, because I don’t need to know any more. There is a reason Jack Bauer never eats or goes to the bathroom on “24” — we do that stuff every day ourselves — we want to see him kick ass, take names and save the country…but I digress.

Lots of moments that made me smile:

*Roslin flustering Cottle with her thanks for taking care of her, and then saying “don’t spoil your image, just go light a cigar and grumble” (and then the nurse chuckling to herself)

*Adama telling soldiers to fire until they were out of bullets and then start throwing rocks

*Adama telling mystery person that he needs someone he can trust to lead the base star and remainder of the fleet, and then the reveal that the someone is Hoshi–make that Admiral Hoshi (how do you like them apples, Gaeta?)

*Lee then having to correct Hoshi for calling him “sir”

*Romo becoming president: “poetic justice?”

*Baltar shocking everyone, including his followers (“You appropriated me, I never belonged to you”) by staying behind. Looks like Lee’s comments last week actually worked. And then Six telling him she’d been in more battles than he had.

*Six stopping Baltar from shooting his gun before he killed anyone he wasn’t supposed to, and then Lee telling him he “did good”

*Cavil: “I don’t mean to rush you, but you are keeping two civilizations waiting.”

The FX in the battle scenes was just awe inspiring. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff. However, when Galactica plows into the Base Star, I kept thinking: “Ramming speed!”

Great moments:

*When Chip Baltar and Chip Six appear and the real Baltar and Six realize: “you see them?” Hallelujah! I think this is a turning point for Baltar because he comes to terms with his love for Six and gains confidence in that; his world revolves around someone other than himself.

*Tory trying to prepare Tyrol for what he’s about to find out when the Five join together to piece together the resurrection process (and access each other’s memories). Then, Tyrol’s reaction to discovering what she was referring to when she airlocked Cally. A blog I read said that Aaron Douglas does his best acting without lines, and here, he had another great scene with his eyes — and then his hands, when he strangles Tory (so much for that old relationship). But how great was it that this reaction stops the downloading of the resurrection information, and the truce is broken as quickly as it was created.

When Boomer brings Hera back because she owes the “Old Man,” I assumed it was for shooting him all those years ago in CIC. Nope. When she should have washed out as a rookie, he gave her one more chance to land her Raptor, and she told him she would pay him back some day when it really meant something. Doesn’t stop Athena from killing her, though.

I did think the setup for the jump was a bit contrived. Dead Racetrack’s raptor is hit by space junk, which causes her hand to fall on the button, which then causes the raptor to fire its guns into Galactica, which then must jump before it falls apart. Hand of God? Butterfly effect? Whatevs.

We did get some questions answered.

*The Opera House is CIC. I got really turned around when they were all wandering around Cavil’s Base Star, so I was surprised when they all ended up there. Hera wanders off and Roslin, Athena and Baltar and Six go looking for her, just as they do in the vision (the intercuts really helped here). Turns out, Baltar and Six weren’t trying to kidnap her, they were saving her from Cavil. When they look up to the balcony of the Opera House to see the Five, we see the Five on the upper deck of CIC where they have gathered as Sam powers the ship.

*Baltar gives us a clue to some identities as he gains a newfound faith in himself: “I see angels. I may be mad, but that doesn’t mean I’m not right” (telling Cavil about Hera being the future of humanity and the future of the Cylons). There is “another force at work. Everyone in this room has seen events they can’t explain….Our destinies are intertwined.”

*Kara was right. The notes in the song refer to numbers, which are the jump coordinates to “Earth.” And this time it is most definitely our Earth.

*They end up in Africa and find an early tribal civilization with no language. Lee says to break the cycle, they shouldn’t build another new city, but give the people already here “the best part of ourselves” and remove the problems created by technology.

What happens now?

*Civilians are sent off in groups to various points with supplies, where presumably, they become the different peoples of the world.

*The ships of the fleet (including Galactica) are piloted by Sam via pre-programmed coordinates into the Sun, taking technology with them.

*Tyrol, tired of people, goes off alone to an island up north where it is cold.

*Tigh & Ellen head off together, as do the Agathons (whew, I thought Helo might have died from his gunshot wound to the leg, so I was happy to see him limping here).

*Adama makes a comment to Roslin about Earth being a dream they’ve been chasing for a long time. Sure, the real Earth didn’t work out, but this is Earth now. He takes her away in a Raptor to see the sights, and she dies. He begins building the cabin they talked about on New Caprica.

*Kara tells Lee that she is leaving. She has finished her journey, but feels good. He looks off into the distance and says he wants to explore this new world. When he turns back to her, she has disappeared. I think Baltar is right; Kara 2.0 is an angel.

*Speaking of angels, Six & Baltar watch Hera and wonder if that was all God wanted of them. The Chips appear again to tell them that their lives will be less eventful now. Baltar talks about finding land to cultivate — he knows about farming — and gets emotional. The show begins and ends with their relationship.

The biggest answer of all:

*Time moves forward 150,000 years to the present day — OUR present day. The Chips are there reading an article over Ron Moore’s shoulder (love the cameo!) about the finding of the remains of mitochondrial Eve — who we now know is Hera — in Tanzania.

*Chip Six: “Commercialization, decadence, technology run amok…remind you of anything?”

*”All of this has happened before … but does it have to happen again.”

*Six refers to God, and Baltar says: “You know, he doesn’t like that name.” They too are angels.

Again, wow! Ron Moore has a thing for flash forwards, but I think I’d like to know a little more about how our rag-tag fleet became the ancestors of human kind. Is this why we have a missing link — because there isn’t one? The Neanderthals (and those like them)were wiped out because the fleet came in and took over? A lot to ponder.